Inspiration
Eversince I saw Brago, King Eternal, I knew that he would remain one of my favourite commander as he allows for the use of normally great cards and abuse them until them become borderline over-powered. This is the central dogma of this deck: Grant extra value to ramp, control and later overwhelm.
Brago, King Eternal can decide the outcome of games quickly if left alone. His main down-fall is that he is pivotal to the success of the deck. If he is removed or not allowed to connect many times the deck may struggle to pick up steam and suck out that all important value.
Strategy
A typical starting hand would include mana rocks such as Sol Ring, Grim Monolith, Azorius Signet to try to get Brago, King Eternal out really early.
Next, a starting hand would most likely have a blink spell such as Cloudshift, Essence Flux to try to protect Brago, King Eternal from being exiled or destroyed early on by taking him out of the battlefield if he is targeted. Counter spells are also nice for the same purpose or to slow opponents down. Evasion, Unquestioned Authority, Thassa, God of the Sea is also necessary as Brago needs to connect
The last thing a starting hand would have is something to start the snowball effect such as card draw Cloudblazer, removal
Palace Jailer
,
Act of Authority
, more mana Peregrine Drake etc.
Deck Breakdown:
Control
One of my favourite and most different way to control the game has to be
Wu Spy
. Seeing an opponent get a hand full of lands by playing him and re-using him with Brago, King Eternal or Blink spells is quite rewarding. Other similar cards include
Wand of Denial
and works wonders combined with Thought-Knot Seer (Bad hand and bad draws).
More standard control/slows include Glen Elendra Archmage, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Stasis (Sideboard).
Removal
This deck can be great at removal when it is in motion.
Palace Jailer
,
Act of Authority
, Spine of Ish Sah, Reflector Mage, Venser, Shaper Savant,
Reality Acid
are all amazing with this deck's synergy. Often times, just one or two of these cards and Brago is enough to cripple opponent's board presence.
Aven Fogbringer
,
Tectonic Edge
and Ghost Quarter are an absolute must because Maze of Ith (I hate that card) ABSOLUTELY destroys Brago, King Eternal.
Ramp and draw
This is very straight forward, but manarocks(Grim Monolith, Gilded Lotus) or "untap-a-land" dorks (Cloud of Faeries, Peregrine Drake) gives all the mana this deck needs and cards like Cloudblazer,
Ancestral Knowledge
and Mulldrifter typically draw you into win cons.
Other neat things
-I once had a board lock down with Archaeomancer, Cyclonic Rift and
Eerie Interlude
. I used the Cyclonic Rift on my turn, then used
Eerie Interlude
on my opponent's turns in response to board wipes or other removal to blink Archaeomancer (which brought back
Eerie Interlude
) and Brago, King Eternal. This allowed me to blink them many times if needed as I had an untap-a-land dork. On my turn, all I needed to do was to attack with Brago to get Cyclonic Rift back and repeat.
-Planeswalkers also work wonders as I can use their abilities twice a turn.
-Heliod's Pilgrim is also great to tutor for
Alexi's Cloak
, Unquestioned Authority or
Treachery
(I love that card!!).
Conclusion
Brago, King Eternal is a really fun and powerful deck to pilot. When played well, the deck rewards with extreme value. It is not with it's flaws as the commander is quite vulnerable, but nevertheless remains fun to play.
I would love to have suggestions as a deck can always improve!
P.S. : I play in a meta of extremely fast powerhouses which requires any deck to be fast and reliable to barely squeeze a victory.